Having said that - I have been busy, but everything is winding down somewhat at the moment now. With people leaving the area, contract jobs (potentially) going permanent - for MUCH less money, all is in a state of flux, though I am not concerned. Things are not bad by any stretch of the imagination and both personally and professionally things are quite lovely, thank you :)
Last week (yup it's been THAT long) - and there was so much that I did last week:
Wednesday night I was fortunate enough to see Henry Rollins in his (do not say the words) Spoken Word performance 'Provoked'. To say that I was in awe ins somewhat of an understatement. Rollins has such a wealth of material to draw on with a ration of 10% research Vs 90% experience. He reads, he questions, he hops on a plane and goes to Pakistan, you know - little things like that. From walking onstage he did not stop - I mean did NOT stop his passionate, intense, yet Celtic-knot weave of dialogue which had me at times wondering "Where the hell is he going with this tangent?!" only to have him tie it into 3 point he's made 5, 8, and 15 minutes ago. The man is a consummate narrator and let's be honest, any artist who takes the time to spend 15 minutes on why he loves coming here (26 times at this current count) and congratulating us on ousting "George W Bush's a$$ vacuum" and what it can mean to have the Prime Minister of our country chastise the Chinese about Tibet ("...in farking Mandarin!!") has my vote for instant citizenship offer. I think he breathed during his show, I know he had a gulp of water or two. He moulded the audience from the cultural cringe of John Howard and George Bush, through shock at his school life and some of his parental upbringing, astonishment at his audacity to just go off and visit Chechnya and Iran because he didn't want to be told what he should believe about those places, laughter at his geeky-fanboyisms in meeting Iggy Pop and his days breathing back-hair with Black Flag, through his visits to South African AIDS clinics and his bittersweet stand-in stint with The Rutts (his favourite band in the whole universe - check them out) at their farewell concert in the UK (by their request I might add). Of course this only paints broad strokes as to the content of his show - and if he comes here to once again sit and have an intimate chat with another 400 people, I recommend that you maim someone to get a ticket.
The following night was ANZAC Eve, and SNOG were playing at The Gaelic. Now I have heard SNOG before and they're pretty much a done deal (what you see is what you get). The supports (The Inflatable Voodoo Dolls and Bleepin' J Squawkins) were more interesting inasmuch as seeing how far they have come along since they started play a few years ago. The IVD are technically very damned good - but let's face it kids, they're no Kraftwerk. As I told Joe, they have to start engaging the audience to break through (at least that's my opinion, others may differ). If they can crack that VNV Nation audience connection spike, they could go really REALLY far, and that's something to look forward to. It was good to chat with Joe after the set too. He's always got good ideas - some which are coming to fruition very soon - but I say Shtum on that. Bleepin' J Squawkins is in the same basket as The IVD. Technically good, though hardware did start failing halfway through the set (in saying that, he recovered with some lightning fast repairs and cross-circuiting [whilst still playing, mind you] and finished off really well. Again keeping attention on what you are doing is a great thing, but at the end of the day, you're there to perform for the audience, and perhaps that's something I don't get with some EBM artists. VERY damned good - great sound, know their way in and out of a Synth like it was a trip around the block at home, but that's where their focus is. I want to be engaged by more than the sounds (though BIG damned Kudos to the brilliant sounds that are produced live!) Of course, as I mentioned SNOG brought up the last - where the others were technically more than competent, SNOG filled the performance Gap. This is where the experience shows as the audience connection was right there in front of you. Great visuals, great performance, excellent all round. It's sad when you can sum it all up like that - they are great. I was looking forward to the after-party (originally at Club 77, but was 'somehow double-booked') but the venue closed everyone out at about 1:30am - and there were more people there than there were after Assemblage 23 and we were there until 4am that morning so... one wonders what happened. Still it made for an earlyish morning.
The next day was ANZAC Day. This is something sacrosanct to many Australians. A day of reflection not to glorify war and battle, but to honour those who fought and died in an surprisingly uneven struggle in World War I at Gallipoli. I know that is remarkably simplistic and there are a lot more details to be added to that one statement to give it colour and meaning but at the end of the day - that is what is it. A Dawn Service reminds us that at that hour people were dying to break the backs of a WWI German ally with a quick surgical strike that stretched on through 8 months of blood-soaked trench warfare. All sides lost. The annual Parade honours all those in the armed services who have seen active duty at some time. It doesn't support the reasons for them going to whatever conflict, but it does support that they put their health and lives on the line for something our Nation sent them off to do.
Later that evening was our monthly Barbarians At The Plates meeting and we had a nice number attend (being 7 out of 10 who booked). The restaurant was La Brasserie in Crown Street (just before William Street) and the cuisine was awesome. For what amounted to $45 per head (though some varied due to wine and extras) we were served a myriad of dishes to satiate even the most jaded palates. An entrée Plat de Charcuterie for the table of various different choice pieces. Selection of rillettes, terrine, parfait, pate, saucisson sec with condiments and sliced baguette/crisp roll included a great terrine but also a pate which I thought would kill me with it's shocking goodness. Both Craig and I (yes there were two of us) couldn't really get enough and it was great to see Barbara suddenly spring to the fore with food-knowledge . Talk about fitting in ;) That as for the table. My entrée was the Huîtres. Freshly shucked Pacific oysters with cabernet vinegar, shallots and black pepper dressing. Just brilliant. I wanted everyone to try some - and believe me they all will wish they did. Craig and Jackie had 3 pacific and 3 Sydney Rock as a mixture, I had 6 pacific. Let me tell you that the Pacific was and is superior. I like Sydney Rock oysters, but they end up (in comparison) being too 'briney' and ...er... 'metalley' for my taste. I know Nikki would have loved them - for that matter I think that's a place Nikki, Eric and we should pop out to in a couple of weeks. Anyway, the oysters were the right texture, freshly still attached to the shells (no recycling here at all thank you) and the dressing was absolutely drinkable. The cabernet top-note totally complemented the shellfish and mixed so as to both satisfy the salt-desire with the vinaigrette tang at the mid-note. (I have to mention that Barbara had the Crevettes au fenouil, being Prawns sauteed in Pernod with fennel seed and butter. Absolutely awesome in texture and buttery flavour. NOT an entrée dish which will clog your arteries, but you feel guilty giving your mouth this much pleasure - Well, you feel that you should be arrested for doing so, anyway). Most of the others had the Soufflé au Fromage, which was a twice baked gruyere cheese soufflé with artichoke, fennel and parsley salad, which smelt great, though disappeared so quickly I must assume that it tasted as good as it smelt. The wines so far were a very nice light NV Gosset 'Brut Excellence' French Chardonnay Pinot, followed by a most excellent bottle of Wolfberger Pinot Gris which had Craig and Jackie wishing they'd bought that one first up as opposed to their bottle. Sadly I can't remember what theirs was, but it was very very nice. Still, not a patch on the Pinot Gris, I'm afraid. On to the main course which for me was Onglet poêlé à l'échalote being a Fried onglet (like a rib-eye steak cut, but finer, cooked medium rare) with caramelised shallots & green beans, also sided with a Garden Salad (with a wonderfully tart vinaigrette dressing which offset the beef excellently). The onglet was fine and succulent, the medium rare was indeed medium rare (as opposed to many other places which call burnt and blue, medium rare), and the shallots mixed wonderfully with the buttered green beans. As good as this was, and it was more than good, it paled into insignificance beside Barbara's Steak tartare. This was a symphony of raw ground scotch fillet with cornichons, capers, raw egg, shallots, tomato fondue and aioli. This had to be the best thing I had tasted all night. Now in saying that let me add that I have blue steak (when I can) and I am a fan of many cuisines yet this tartare was exquisite. I had eaten my onglet and had to push the other plate away from me because I knew I would steal it all. It was absolutely brilliant. Jackie, I believe went with the Gnocchi (not a pasta!) which were panfried potato gnocchi with a fricassee of mushrooms, prunes, walnuts and gruyere cheese. Vegan? No. Vegetarian option absolutely. They were delicious. (The other) Craig went with Pieds de Porc panés. A pigs trotter slow braised and crumbed, served with boudin noir (a black pudding) of pork belly, apple and ebly wheat. Now when one says 'black pudding - apart from the obvious Goodies references - one thinks of something quite heavy. This was not that dish. I've had black pudding before, and this was like... black pudding mousse. Light, flavourful, with an apple top-note which stayed throughout the piece I had - very VERY nice indeed. The others had the Entrecôte (a 250g char grilled aged & grain fed scotch fillet) sauce Marchand de vin with French fries - and these were REAL fries not MacPlastic - these were real potato, a good size, crisp on the outside and fluffy (not oily) on the inside. Of course this necessitated 2 more bottles of the Pinot Gris. All too soon the experience (for that's just what it was, not just a dinner, but an experience) was over, and we went our separate ways. The speed of departure was primarily because I thought I was running late to see Juliette & The Licks at The Forum (just 10 mins up the road, mind you).
I should continue this in another post.... so people don't get exhausted from reading.
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